In the article, she mentions that people didn't seem to notice. I suspect most of those people were just trying to be polite, thinking that she was ill. She also works mostly at home, so there wasn't an opportunity for an anonymous someone to leave anti-perspirant on her desk.

I do agree that not using eye make-up helped the cyst on her eye heal, and that most of the goop that she was originally using didn't do much of anything. Doesn't mean I'm giving up my daily shower.

Great big POD to that. No way would I tell an acquaintance that they stink. I would try to not stand near them, but I wouldn't say anything. Only time I would offer an opinion on BO would be if a friend asked me if they had it. Now, my DS has BO and I don't hesitate to tell him (not that he does anything about it) but I have to live with him. Methinks her children refusing to snuggle with her should have been a huge red flag about the state of her body. Children don't do the white lie to make you feel better (for the most part) like adults do.

Me either. When Sandy hit last fall, I had no power, hot water, etc. for 3.5 days. It went out monday about 6pm, and I raced for the shower. after that, i just washed since it was soooo cold i couldn't take one. I finally took one thursday night at friends, and i wasn't doing anything physical to sweat, but I still began to smell myself a smidge. ewww.

i can see getting rid of a lot of the stuff she did use, but not bathing at all? yuck. and i agree that most people probably were thinking she looked "off" but would never tell her if she smelled

the reaction from the other moms at her kid's school spoke volumes. before she told them, no issue, but after, they all acted like she was a pariah.

She thinks her skin looked healthier because she didn't wash or bathe? I think it was the sheer number of products she was no longer putting into and onto her body that did it. Washing one's body, hair and teeth, and not loading it up afterward with tons of stuff, is undoubtedly what made it better. Not washing one's body, hair, and teeth is beyond disgusting. I have to say, though, that I couldn't be as polite as she claimed others were. I would take her aside and tell her to WASH for god's sake.

Also, letting her teeth go un-cleaned for six weeks--I mean YUCK!!!--meant, as the dentist told her, that she would eventually lose all of them. She's an idiot.

A slightly amusing side note: I used to write about the history of various bookmarks because I collect them. I have several that are dental related, and one column focused on that. You really, really don't want to know the details of teeth cleaning, though in a slightly-churning stomach way they are fascinating. One fact: Did you know that just after the end of WWII there was a push for radioactive toothpaste ( http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/toothpaste.htm ).

At the risk of making a post that's eligible for the gross-out thread, I read a book about what would be needed to go to Mars. NASA did experiments to see what would happen if a man didn't wash or change clothes for several months. I don't remember anything about smell, but hair and skin did better than you might expect. Underwear, however, disintegrated in about six weeks.

In the article, she mentions that people didn't seem to notice. I suspect most of those people were just trying to be polite, thinking that she was ill. She also works mostly at home, so there wasn't an opportunity for an anonymous someone to leave anti-perspirant on her desk.

I do agree that not using eye make-up helped the cyst on her eye heal, and that most of the goop that she was originally using didn't do much of anything. Doesn't mean I'm giving up my daily shower.

Great big POD to that. No way would I tell an acquaintance that they stink. I would try to not stand near them, but I wouldn't say anything. Only time I would offer an opinion on BO would be if a friend asked me if they had it. Now, my DS has BO and I don't hesitate to tell him (not that he does anything about it) but I have to live with him. Methinks her children refusing to snuggle with her should have been a huge red flag about the state of her body. Children don't do the white lie to make you feel better (for the most part) like adults do.

Me either. When Sandy hit last fall, I had no power, hot water, etc. for 3.5 days. It went out monday about 6pm, and I raced for the shower. after that, i just washed since it was soooo cold i couldn't take one. I finally took one thursday night at friends, and i wasn't doing anything physical to sweat, but I still began to smell myself a smidge. ewww.

i can see getting rid of a lot of the stuff she did use, but not bathing at all? yuck. and i agree that most people probably were thinking she looked "off" but would never tell her if she smelled

the reaction from the other moms at her kid's school spoke volumes. before she told them, no issue, but after, they all acted like she was a pariah.

At the risk of making a post that's eligible for the gross-out thread, I read a book about what would be needed to go to Mars. NASA did experiments to see what would happen if a man didn't wash or change clothes for several months. I don't remember anything about smell, but hair and skin did better than you might expect. Underwear, however, disintegrated in about six weeks.

Are you talking about the book "Packing for Mars" by Mary Roach? I have read that. It really takes all of the glamor out of space exploration!

Considering the drastic change I would have assumed she was depressed, or sick. I'm not suprised her skin is better after getting rid of all the crap she was using. I'm not sure why she felt the need to forgo all basic cleaning though. A bar of soap and some toothpaste would have been minimal enough, I'd think. People do weird things.

I do try to limit the chemicals I put onto my body (no sulfates or parabens in my soaps, shampoos, or lotions, natural toothpaste, and I'm trying to switch over to more natural makeups), but I still participate in daily hygiene rituals. I'll admit that I don't shampoo my hair daily, in fact, 99% of the time I wash it with conditioner instead of shampoo, and that's only every 2nd or 3rd day, with a plain water rinse in between. For my hair type, this routine maximizes the curl and minimizes the frizz, while still flushing out the grime. And I don't wear deodorant/antiperspirant on a daily basis because I've found that I don't produce odiferous sweat except when I exercise, and when I exercise I shower immediately afterwards anyhow. I can't come up with any justification for omitting teeth cleansing though.

I have decided to save water by showering at the gym. I don't take every shower there, but if I'm going to go workout I might as well use their water instead of mine, even if I'm coming straight home afterwards. And I try to get to the gym 5-6 times a week. This is my first month at my new gym, with locker rooms nice enough that I'm willing to shower there, so it remains to be seen if it actually makes an appreciable difference in our water bill.

I read a book recently, about how a man made a pact with the devil for untold riches. In return, he couldn't bathe or even get wet for 3 years, 3 months and 3 weeks. The man won the bet. I keep debating if I could go through with a similar oppunity. It would be hard, but worth it possibly in the end. I had to search for it, but I found it.

At the risk of making a post that's eligible for the gross-out thread, I read a book about what would be needed to go to Mars. NASA did experiments to see what would happen if a man didn't wash or change clothes for several months. I don't remember anything about smell, but hair and skin did better than you might expect. Underwear, however, disintegrated in about six weeks.

Are you talking about the book "Packing for Mars" by Mary Roach? I have read that. It really takes all of the glamor out of space exploration!

My grandpa was one of those 'this is how much I *think* it should cost so therefore this is how much I'm going to spend on it' types. When I was in high school, we drove back to Colorado for my aunt's wedding. One of grandpa's friends told him all about how he had found hotel rooms for $25 so that was all grandpa was willing to spend on a hotel. Of course, there were no hotels to be had for $25 on our route but that didn't matter. We would just keep driving until we found one. We didn't find one and ending up sleeping in the parking lot at a KOA.

Once when we went over for dinner, he went to pick up chicken. One 8 piece chicken meal with 2 sides. For 6 adults. DH and I put a stop to that kind of thing by bringing dinner over with us. That way we knew there would be enough food.